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The
Cash-Landrum Incident was a reported Unidentified Flying Object
sighting from the United
States in 1980, which the witnesses
insist was responsible for damage to their health. It is one
of very few UFO cases to result in criminal court
proceedings.

"To ufologists, the case is perhaps the most baffling and
frustrating of modern times, for what started with solid evidence
for a notoriously elusive phenomenon petered out in a maze of dead
ends, denials, and perhaps even official deviousness."

Incident

The
evening of December 29, 1980, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and Colby
Landrum (Vickie's seven-year-old grandson) were driving home to
Dayton,
Texas in Cash's Oldsmobile
Cutlass after dining out.

At about 9.00 p.m., while driving on an isolated two-lane road in
dense woods, the witnesses said they observed a light above some
trees. They initially thought the light was an
airplane approaching Houston Intercontinental
Airport (about 35 miles away) and gave it little
notice.

A few minutes later on the winding roads, the witnesses saw what
they took to be the same light as before, but it was now much
closer and very bright. The light, they would claim, came from a
huge diamond-shaped object, which hovered at about treetop level.
The object's base was expelling flame and emitting significant
heat.

Vickie Landrum told Cash to stop the car, fearing they would be
burned if they approached any closer. However, Vickie's opinion of
the object quickly changed: a born
again Christian, she interpreted the object as a sign of the
second coming of Jesus Christ, telling her grandson, "That's
Jesus. He will not hurt us." (Clark, 175)

Anxious, Cash considered turning the car around, but abandoned this
idea because the road was too narrow and she presumed the car would
get stuck on the dirt shoulders, which were soft from that
evening's rains.

Cash and Landrum got out of the car to examine the object. Colby
was terrified, however, and Vickie Landrum quickly returned to the
car to comfort the frantic child. Cash remained outside the car,
"mesmerized by the bizarre sight," as Jerome Clark wrote. (Clark, 175) He went
on,

The
object, intensely bright and a dull metallic silver, was shaped
like a huge upright diamond, about the size of the Daytonwater tower, with its
top and bottom cut off so that they were flat rather than
pointed. Small blue lights ringed the center, and
periodically over the next few minutes flames shot out of the
bottom, flaring outward, creating the effect of a large cone. Every
time the fire dissipated, the UFO floated a few feet downwards
toward the road. But when the flames blasted out again, the object
rose about the same distance." (Clark, 175)

The witnesses said the heat was strong enough to make the car's
metal body painful to the touch -- Cash said she had to use her
coat to protect her hand from being burnt when she finally
re-entered the car. When she touched the car's dashboard, Vickie
Landrum's hand pressed into the softened vinyl, leaving an imprint
that was evident weeks later. Investigators cited this handprint as
proof of the witnesses' account; however, no photograph of the
alleged handprint exists.

The object then moved to a point higher in the sky. As it ascended
over the treetops, the witnesses claimed that a group of helicopters approached the object and surrounded
it in tight formation. Cash and Landrum counted 23 helicopters, and
later identified some of them as tandem-rotor CH-47 Chinooks used by military forces
worldwide.

With the road now clear, Cash drove on, claiming to see glimpses of
the object and the helicopters receding into the distance.

From first sighting the object to its departure, the witnesses said
the encounter lasted about 20 minutes. Based on descriptions given
in John F. Schuessler's book about the incident, it appears that
the observers were southbound on Texas state highway FM 1485/2100
when they claimed to have seen the object. The initial location of
the reported object, based on the same descriptions, was just south
of Inland Road, approximately at .

Other witnesses

Investigators later located a Dayton police officer, Detective
Lamar Walker, and his wife who claimed to have seen 12 Chinook-type
helicopters near the same area the Cash-Landrum event allegedly
occurred and at roughly the same time. These other witnesses did
not report seeing a large diamond-shaped object. Detective Walker
investigated this incident but was misled on numerous occasions by
high ranking military officials, including those reportedly from
the pentagon.

One day in April 1981 a CH-47 flew into Dayton. As Colby watched he
became very upset. Vickie decided to take him to the spot where the
helicopter had landed in the hope that it would seem less
frightening on the ground. When they reached the landing zone they
found a lot of people there already and had to wait some time
before they were allowed to go inside the helicopter and talk to
the pilot. Vickie and another visitor both claim that the pilot
said he had been in the area before for the purpose of checking on
a UFO in trouble near Huffman. When Vickie told the pilot how glad
she was to see him, because she had been one of the people burned
by the UFO, he refused to talk to them any more and hustled them
out of the aircraft. (Corpus Christi Caller)

Aftermath

Health problems

After the UFO and helicopters left, Cash took the Landrums home,
then retired for the evening. That night, they all experienced
similar symptoms, though Cash to a greater degree. All suffered
from nausea, vomiting, diarrhea,
generalized weakness, a burning sensation in their eyes, and
feeling as though they'd suffered sunburns.

Over the next few days, Cash's symptoms worsened, with many large,
painful blisters forming on her skin. When taken to a hospital
emergency room on January 3, 1981, Clark writes, Cash "could not
walk, and had lost large patches of skin and clumps of hair. She
was released after 12 days, though her condition was not much
better, and she later returned to the hospital for another 15
days."(Clark, 176)

The Landrums' health was somewhat better, though both suffered from
lingering weakness, skin sores and hair loss.

A radiologist who examined the
witnesses' medical records for MUFON wrote, "We have strong
evidence that these patients have suffered secondary damage to
ionizing radiation. It is also
possible that there was an infrared or
ultraviolet component as well." (quoted
in Clark, 176)

However, Brad Sparks contends that, although the symptoms were
somewhat similar to those caused by ionizing radiation, the
rapidity of onset was only consistent with a massive dose that
would have meant certain death in a few days. Since all of the
victims lived for years after the incident, Sparks suggests the
cause of the symptoms was some kind of chemical contamination,
presumably by an aerosol.

Investigations

Vickie Landrum telephoned a number of U.S. government agencies and
officials about the encounter. When she telephoned NASA, Landrum was
steered towards NASA aerospace engineer John Schuessler, long interested in
UFOs. With some associates from civilian UFO research group
MUFON, Schuessler began research on the case,
and later wrote articles and a book on the subject. Astronomer
Allan Hendry of CUFOS also investigated the Cash-Landrum case.

Due to the Chinook helicopters' presence, the witnesses presumed
that at least one branch of the United States Armed Forces
witnessed the object, if they were not escorting or pursuing it.
However, investigators could find no evidence linking the
helicopters with any branch of the military.

In 1982, Lt. Col. George Sarran of the Department of the Army
Inspector General began the only thorough formal governmental
investigation into the supposed UFO encounter. He could not find
any evidence that the helicopters the witnesses claimed to have
seen belonged to the U.S. Armed Forces. Sarran did conclude that
"Ms. Landrum and Ms. Cash were credible … the policeman and his
wife [who claimed to have seen 12 helicopters near the UFO
encounter site] were also credible witnesses. There was no
perception that anyone was trying to exaggerate the truth." (quoted
in Clark, 177)

In 1998, journalist and UFO sceptic Philip J.Klass found a few reasons to doubt the story
related by Cash and Landrum:

when Schuessler inspected Betty's car in early 1981 and used a
geiger counter to check for radioactivity, he found none.
Presum-ably [sic] he also checked for radioactivity when he visited
the site of the (alleged) incident, and found no abnormal radiation
... [Schuessler] provides NO medical data on Betty's health PRIOR
to the UFO incident. Nor does he provide any medical data on the
prior health of Vicki or Colby. (emphasis in original)[107632]

Other UFO researchers point out that high-energy ionizing radiation
of the kind that can cause damage to human beings (e.g. gamma
radiation) does not induce radioactivity in objects, and would not
have left behind any residual radioactivity in the area.

Similarly, Brookesmith writes, "Sceptics have always asked a blunt
and fundamental question: what was the trio's state of health
before their alleged encounter?"

With attorney Peter Gersten taking on
the case pro bono, the case wound its way
through the U.S. Courts for several years. Cash and Landrum sued
the U.S government for $20 million.

On August 21, 1986, a U.S. District Court judge dismissed their
case, noting that the plaintiffs had not proved that the
helicopters were associated with the U.S. Government, and that
military officials had testified that the United States Armed
Forces did not have a large, diamond shaped aircraft in their
possession.

Later Years

In 1981 Vickie Landrum appeared on That's Incredible, a popular ABC television program. Vickie
was hypnotized in front of a studio audience; under hypnosis she
recounted the UFO incident. Vickie Landrum and Betty Cash both
appeared on the 1989 U.S television special, UFO Cover Up?Live!, hosted by Mike Farrell.
They related their account of the UFO encounter and their
subsequent medical problems and legal battles. In 2009 Colby
Landrum appeared on UFO Hunters: Alien Fallout.

Coincidentally, Betty Cash died at the age of 69 on December 29,
1998, exactly 18 years after her claimed close encounter.